Planer type mining machine



Aug. 6, 1957 HANS-ROLF SANDER PLANER TYPE MINING MACHINE Filed June '5, 1952 V 'INVENTQR HANS'ROLF SANDER BY M&%%

ATTORNEY PATE NT PLANER TYPE MINING MACHINE Hans-Rolf Sander, Essen-Stadtwald, Germany Application June75, 1952, Serial No. 291,840

7 Claims. (Cl. 262-8) The invention relates to a machine for the recovery by peeling, particularly on hard coal scams or other minerals deposited in seams, and more particularly of those of low thickness, by means of a bi-laterally acting planer.

The machines hitherto used for recovery by peeling operated in general in such a manner that, regardless of the eifects of the rock pressure, a rectangular cross section was peeled out of the cool seam, the coal being sometimes preliminarily loosened during any one of the shifts by means of a precutter knife. Appropriately constructed. planer knives are then driven over the whole, or over 'nited States Patent the preponderant part of the profile to be peeled, whereby very high forces of friction are set up.

The object of the invention is to overcome the obvious disadvantages of these machines, in particular to reduce their unfavourable effect on the tensile forces and at the same time to improve the manner of operation of the whole device by appropriate shaping of the planer.

The invention makes, for this purpose, use of the fact that the coal face tends to buckle out under the action of the rock pressure towards the free bay, i. e. in the only direction in which it can give way, and/or to loosen itself. This buckling outwardly takes place to the greatest extent at about half the height of the thickness of the seam, and has the consequence that in this middle zone'the coal becomes softer, the cleats opening up. On the roof and on the bottom, however, the coal seam cannot change its structure to the same extent, owing to adhesion by friction. The differences in the mechanical strength of the coal resulting therefrom are still reinforced when the coal is burned partly off on the roof or on the bottom as is often the case.

These actions of the rock pressure on the mechanical strength of the coal are made use of according to the invention in the most favourable way thereby that, in basic contradistinction to the method of operation hitherto used in the coal planing working, the coal is firstly wedged out on the middle level of the thickness of the seam. i. e. in the softest stratum.

As soon as the cohesion of the coal face is interrupted thereby in this middle stratum, whereby the stresses of the coal are relieved, i. e. the component of the mechanical strength of the coal caused by the rock pressure is eliminated, small forces only are needed in order to loosen the coal at the bottom by means of a wedge shaped bottom knife, the construction of which appropriate for this purpose forms a particular feature of the invention.

In accordance with this invention these disadvantages are overcome by a novel construction of the planer which will now be described in a preferred embodiment with reference to the drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is an elevation of the planer as seen from the coal face,

Figure 2 is a plan view of the device inserted, and

Figure 3 is a side elevation which particularly illustrates the method of operation.

a Figure 4 illustrates anelevation of another embodiice ment of the planer according to the invention,'as seen from the coal face.

With reference to Figures 1, 2 and 3, the planer, according to this embodiment, comprises a base .a, on which a support b is mounted rockably about a pivot k secured to the base a in a manner known per se, whereby this support b is permitted to carry out limited swivelling movements through a small angle. Each end of said support b has a knife or cutter 0 extending over a considerable portion of the height of the coal face and comprising two double wedge cutter members 0 and 0 which are integrally joined and form a pyramidal structure of two asymmetrical pyramids symmetrically arranged in a horizontal medial plane transverse to the coal face. The cutters c are guided at about half the height of the thickness of the seam in the coal face. The pyramid structure ofthe cutter 0, according to this invention, has four sides and its axis is tilted in the horizontal plane at a slight angle in the direction of the feed of the planer toward thecoal face, whereby the coal is wedged off by the two frontal faces of the double wedge cutter membersc and c directed at an angle against the roof andthe bottom of the coal seam.

After the knife c has wedged off the coal face in its zone, which had been previously loosened most, the coal remaining near the bottom, which has now been relieved from the pressure of the rocks is undercut by a second wedge shapedknife d which is constructed symmertically on both sides and which is fixed to the basev of the planer, and the coal is thereby raised and loosened. This knife is, according to the embodiment represented, arranged in the axis of symmetry of the planer and is so constructed that it acts in both directions of movement of the planer, that is it loosens the coal wedged off by it and raises it into the free space which lies between the two knives c on the side of the planer facing the coal face. Instead of being arranged as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, the two wedges forming the knife d may be separated from one another by a distance such that they lie to the'left and right of the apparatus at the foot of the base which carries the pyramid shaped knife. Such modification is shown in the embodiment of Figure 4, the separated lower wedge knives being designated by d, and d,. The object of this arrangement is to enable if necessary, the coal to be carried off into the armoured conveyor immediately after the cutting operation. In either case it is possible, by this arrangement and construction of the two knives c and d, to peel off a considerably larger layer than the layer which is passed by the two knives (Figure 3). Thus part of the work for overcoming friction is saved, and the force required for pulling the planer is substantially reduced.

The knives according to a feature of the invention, are so constructed that the coal is more wedged off than peeled, since it is well known that smaller forces are required for loosening the coal by Wedging it off than for peeling it off. By the construction and arrangement of the knives described the following further advantages are attained.

By the strong wedge action of the knife or knives d acting between the bottom and the coal, any climbing of the planer is prevented. This action is additionally enhanced by the pressure of the coal which, in accordance with Figure 3, bears on to the upper breast face or member 0 of the knife 0. In case the planer should, under particularly unfavourable conditions, still climb,

. an additional pressure component can be made to act skewing of the planer is prevented. Accordingly the usual utilisation of supports under the conveyor means can be dispensed with, whereby not only the force of pulling is further reduced, but whereby also the manner of operation of the planer is considerablysimplified.

The knife or knives d are moreover constructed somewhat larger in height and breadth adjacent the ,coal face than at the planer proper. In this manner the planer receives a component of movement into the coal face. Thereby that end of the planer, which actually moves freely, is not pressed out of the coal and the lateral pressure against the pulling means is thereby cancelled out. Due to the steep angle of attack of the knife, the latter tends to penetrate into the face of the hard coal. To prevent'the knife from cutting too deep into the coal face, the point of attachment of the pulling member is provided far ahead of the point of the knife 0. In order to obviate too large a rigid length of the planer in the horizontal direction, on both sides of the planer, as shown in Figure 2, extensions e are arranged, which are attached to the planer by means of a joint 1 pivoted about a horizontal axis. The pulling means engages on these extensions which are adapted and arranged to militate against lateral movements relative to the base. When the pulling means is connected to the extensions, the planer can naturally be driven merely up to the length of the extensions towards the drive of the pulling means, in the long wall, which would cause an undesirable enlargement of the space required for housing the planer. This difiiculty can however be overcome by attaching the pulling member to the extreme point of the extension, and additionally to the base a of the plane itself. It is then possible to detach the pull member from the extension in that position of the planer in which the extension comes to stand immediately before the drive, and then to move the planer body which is directly attached to the pull member, right up to the drive. The pull member must come to lie below the extension e so that the latter can be shifted above the drive into the long wall and if necessary into the gallery. In this Way, the space for housing the planer need not be made larger than hitherto, and moreover there is no danger of the planer moving out of the coal at this point without the use of the extension, since it is prevented from doing so at the ends of the long wall by the anchored drives.

Since the planer constructed according to the invention does no longer move away from or out of the coal, but tends to move into the same, it is necessary to prevent it, by an appropriate control, from penetrating too deeply into the coal face. Owing to the comparatively large structural height of the planer and to the omission of the supports under the pull means, this control has to be effected conveniently at two points at different levels, namely once by means of a guide edge or runner g at the base a which slides on the bottom and along the coal face, and on the other hand by a slider shoe or runner h in the free face of the knife s. This slider shoe or runner is adjustable by means of a spindle i which is operated from the bay in which it moves, and, by modifying the free angle, it controls the penetration of the knife c.

When the planer, in spite of this double control, still shows a tendency of penetrating into the coal face, it is held positively by the runner j on the extension e on a constant predetermined setting and cannot penetrate more deeply into the coal.

Of course the invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described hereinabove in detail and illustrated in the drawing.

I claim:

1. A coal mining machine comprising a basemovable along the mine floor in the region of the coal face, a pull member for advancing the base, a support rockably mounted on the base about a substantially vertical axis, a .first cutter on the support arranged in the middle area of the height of the thickness of the coal seam for wedging coal from the face as the base is advanced, said first cutter comprising two asymmetrical pyramids symmetrically arranged to be disposed in a horizontal medial plane transverse to the coal face, the axes of said pyramids being so inclined at an angle to the coal face that one lateral edge points away from the coal face, and a second cutter sliding on the mine floor and disposed below and in rear of the first cutter for wedging coal upwardly thereby to militate against climbing of the machine during operation, said second cutter comprising two single wedges extending respectively in opposite directions from the vertical medial plane of said first cutter.

2. A coal mining machine as claimed in claim 1 in which the portion of said second cutters adjacent the coal face is of greater height and width than the portion thereof adjacent the base of the machine.

3. A coal mining machine as claimed in claim 1 comprising relatively rigid extension arms so pivotally connected to the base to allow up and down movement but to militate against sidewise movements relative thereto, said arms extending a substantial distance in advance of the base, and a connection between said extension arms and the pull member.

4. A coal mining machine as claimed in claim 1 comprising relatively rigid extension arms so pivotally connected to the base to allow up and down movement but to militate against sidewise movements relative thereto, said arms extending a substantial distance in advance of the base, a runner on one of said extension arms, runners on the base and arranged between the coal face and the mine floor, adjustable runners on said first cutter in the free space behind the points of the pyramids respectively and sliding on the coal face in rear of the respective cutting edge, said runners cooperating in guiding the machine and preventing excessive penetration into the coal face, and a connection between said extension arms and the pull member.

5. A coal mining machine as claimed in claim 1, comprising extension arms mounted on said base to pivot about a horizontal axis and interconnecting said base and said pull member, said extension arms extending a substantial distance beyond the base and being of suflicient rigidity tomilitate against sidewise movements thereof relative to the base.

6. A coal mining machine comprising a base movable along the mine floor parallel to the coal face, a support on said base, a first cutter on said support arranged approximately midway of the height of the coal seam, said cutter being of pyramidal shapeand forming double-wedge cutter members, the widest portion of said cutter extending over a considerable part of the height of the coal face, and a second cutter disposed in spaced relation below and in the rear of said first cutter, said second cutter having a slanting top face sloping downwards toward the leading side of said machine and, thereby being adapted to loosen by upwardly directed wedging action the coal underneath the coal profile cut by said first cutter during the operation of said machine, whereby forces are exerted thereon preventing it from climbing.

7. A coal mining machine comprising a base movable along the mine floor in the region of the coal face, a support on the base, cutters on the front and rear of said support arranged in the middle area of the height of the thickness of the coal seam for wedging coal from the face as the base is advanced in either direction, each of said cutters being of pyramidal shape and forming double-wedge cutter members, the widest portions of said cutters extending over a considerable part of the height of the coal face, and a lower cutter sliding on the mine floor and disposed below said cutters for wedging coal upwardly, thereby to militate against the climbing of the machine dtu'ing operation, said lower cutter having two slanting faces on its top respectively sloping downwards in opposite directions from the vertical medial plane of said machine towards its front and rear ends.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 Pearson et a1. Sept. 16, 1952 Towler Jan. 20, 1953 Gulick Jan. 19, 1954 Sproul Jan. 19, 1954 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany Dec. 11, 1950 

